Marvel -vs- DC

An attempt to settle the age-old fight with data and D3.

Since the 1930s, Marvel and DC Comics have had a friendly rivalry, stemming from the comic book pages and now transcending onto the big screen.
Many of them have deep and well-established backgrounds that go beyond just pages and screens, but where do they come from in the first place? How are they different? Are Marvel characters stronger than their DC counterparts?

Use the visualizations below to compare their origins, superpowers, and see if you could plot other attribute differences between them!

This project is developed by Anuj Katiyal, Moorissa Tjokro, and Shashank Rao.

Where do they come from?

Start by pinpointing the circles to see each character's name, birthplace, and power level on a scale of 0 to 100. The size of circles is based on power.
Use the dropdown menu to compare the characters' origin based on race.

Select Race:

There are much less datapoints shown as DC characters. This makes sense because majority of DC characters live in fictitious cities like Gotham, Metropolis, Starling City etc.
Marvel has more references to real world incidents such as the world wars, and most of the characters live in New York.

Who is more powerful?

Type in the search box below to select your Marvel and DC character, or use the 'Random' button to choose randomly.
Perimeters of the circle indicate the ability level of selected character, with the smallest size being 0 level and the largest is 100.
We will keep your recent comparisons up to five searches.

Select a Superhero :

Select a Superhero :

In the recent movie Batman v. Superman (2016), Superman was deemed stronger than Batman,but both are DC characters.
Now that you could compare a character from Marvel and a character from DC, who do you think would win in the movie Iron-Man v. Superman (20XX)?

Could you find more differences?

Let's see some other attributes of the characters, such as strength, gender and alignment, even eye colors!

Are heavier superheroes stronger? Do men have more strength than women?

Much has been made about the presence of female superheros and the roles that they play, like this article by the Scientific American. Are women really under-represented and under-powered?

How many more superheroes are there than supervillains?

So it's always the fight of the good over evil. How much evil is there in the world, really?

Scroll down to find out!

1. Weight v. Strength:

Look at the scatterplot on the right.

Although female superheroes tend to have lower bodyweight, many of them are stronger than the heavier male superheroes!

2. Good v. Bad v. Neutral:

Look at the clusters on the right.

While a few are neutrals, there are clearly more good heroes than bad villains! Are men more likely than women to become good heroes?

Now let's do something completely whacky!

Let's group them by their eye colors! Did you spot anything interesting?